Overview – Sustainability when driving

Sustainability when driving

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The Audi Environmental Foundation funds research into new recycling process
Sustainability
07/12/2023

Recovering high-tech metals from electronic waste: The Audi Environmental Foundation funds research into new recycling process

The Audi Environmental Foundation has joined forces with the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology to research new ways of recovering raw materials through recycling. Elements such as indium, gallium, or even tin are both finite and essential for modern technologies such as fiber optics, photovoltaics, and semiconductors. Every electronic device is made up of parts that contain these elements. A selective extraction process is planned that will recover these raw materials from incinerated waste. Currently, such materials are lost when the electronic parts that contain them are thrown away with household waste. The new process is designed to keep these valuable high-tech metals in the cycle.
Audi at the GREENTECH FESTIVAL 2023 in Berlin
Technology
06/07/2023

GREENTECH FESTIVAL: Focus on circular economy – pilot project for glass recycling becomes standard

For the windshields in the Audi Q4 e-tron, the company with the four rings will use glass made of up to 30 percent recycled material from car windows damaged beyond repair in the future. In doing so, Audi will successfully shift the “GlassLoop” pilot project into standard production. Audi, in cooperation with its partner companies, is the first premium auto manufacturer to set up a glass cycle of this kind. Until now, car windows damaged beyond repair – mainly windshields and panoramic roofs – have been used for less demanding purposes, such as bottles or insulation, in what is known as downcycling. The pilot project was the first to demonstrate that glass could be reused at comparable quality. Audi will show just how that works from June 14 to 16 at the 2023 GREENTECH FESTIVAL in Berlin. The company has supported the sustainability conference as a founding partner since 2020.
AzuBioTop
Company
04/17/2023

AzuBioTop project: New Audi recruits committed to environmental protection in the region

A new habitat for endangered animal and plant species is currently being created a few kilometers outside Audi’s Ingolstadt plant gates: the Audi AzuBioTop. The idea for the project came from new recruits. Since October 2022, employees have been gradually planting meadows of fruit trees and flowers as well as a replacement habitat for sand lizards. The first tree to be planted in the fall was recently followed by another planting event. Together with Member of the Board of Management for Human Resources and project sponsor Xavier Ros, Board Member for Production and Logistics Gerd Walker, and Chairman of the General Works Council Peter Mosch, the trainees have planted several native fruit trees.

Lifecycle analysis

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Expansion of green charging

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Audi TechTalk: Green Technology
Company
06/17/2021

Partnership with energy providers: Audi funding expansion of renewable energy to increase the number of charging stations in Europe that use green power

The company’s vision is absolutely clear: Audi wants to become a provider of carbon-neutral mobility. To achieve this goal, the company is partnering with energy providers to support the expansion of renewable energy sources. The aim is to work with these different partners to build new wind and solar farms in various European countries by 2025, which together are expected to generate around 5 terawatt hours of additional green power. This corresponds to an installed capacity of about 250 new wind turbines. The aim is for the proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources by the cooperation partners to increase along with the increasing proportion of electric cars. The first project, a solar park in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, is being developed in collaboration with the German utility company RWE. The plant will come on stream in 2022 and is designed for a total capacity of 170 million kilowatt hours. Encompassing nearly 420,000 solar panels, it will be one of the largest independent solar parks in Germany. Further projects are to quickly follow.

Charging technology and infrastructure

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Audi charging hub Berlin
Technology
04/13/2023

“Electrifying” opportunities instead of charging boredom: New Audi charging hub in downtown Berlin

The brand with the four rings is opening a third Audi charging hub right in the center of Berlin. In the German capital, as in Nuremberg and Zurich, second-life batteries will act as buffer storage, and, like Zurich, the compact Audi charging hub with four quick-charging points will be used. At the site in Prenzlauer Berg, however, Audi is taking a different approach to the power hookup. This development is explained in this interview by Elias Hammer, who is the Audi Manager responsible for the rollout in Berlin and for the energy system integration for the Audi charging hub. Future users of the Audi charging hub in Berlin can look forward to an “electrifying wait” during charging instead of the usual boredom as the cooperation with Frischeparadies will mean the time can be put to good use. For Jörg Haucke, a Q4 e-tron customer living in Berlin, the Audi charging hub is the perfect solution for urban charging, with many large cities currently still lacking a quick-charging infrastructure.
More than 5,000 new fast charging points by 2025: Massive expansion by IONITY strengthens Audi’s charging offering
Company
11/24/2021

More than 5,000 new fast charging points by 2025: Massive expansion by IONITY strengthens Audi’s charging offering

A well-developed charging infrastructure forms the very backbone of electrified mobility. That is why IONITY is investing around 700 million euros to install more than 5,000 additional fast-charging points by 2025. As such, the joint venture – in which Volkswagen, with its Porsche and Audi brands, has a stake – is creating more than 1,000 locations for fast charging at up to 350 kW. A new flagship concept from IONITY and the new “Plug and Charge” functionality available on Audi e-tron models are also designed to enhance convenience and the charging experience.

Recyclates

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Pilot Project: Physical Recycling Makes Mixed Plastic Waste Recyclable
Sustainability
09/26/2022

Pilot Project: Physical Recycling Makes Mixed Plastic Waste Recyclable

Audi is promoting sustainable product development and wants to establish more and more cycles. Together with partners from science and industry, the company with the four rings is researching ways of improving material recyclability and saving primary materials. In collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute, the manufacturer is now testing an additional method of recycling plastics and making them usable for mass production. As part of Audi Environmental Week, Audi employees will be focusing on recycling and many other ideas for a more sustainable company. This is the campaign’s second year and it is intended to promote networking, exchange, and interdisciplinary cooperation with the aim of improving Audi’s sustainability performance.
Pilot project glass recycling
Company
04/25/2022

Pilot project started: Faulty car glass to be turned into new windowpanes for the Audi Q4 e-tron

Faulty car windows often go in the recycling bin when the cracked part cannot be fixed. A closed material circuit does not yet exist for damaged car glass. This is where Audi and its partner companies Reiling Glas Recycling, Saint-Gobain Glass, and Saint-Gobain Sekurit are now doing pioneering work as part of a joint pilot project. The partner companies want to turn the damaged auto glass into recyclable material for model production and have drawn up a multi-stage process for that purpose: using an innovative recycling process, the car windows are first broken into small pieces. Then all the non-glass impurities like glue residue are eliminated. The resulting glass granulate is melted down and turned into new plate glass. That plate glass is then turned into a new car window. If this pilot is successful, the windows that are produced this way will be used in models in the Audi Q4 e-tron series in the future.
Audi and KIT are working on recycling method for automotive plastics
Company
06/17/2021

A new lease on life: recycling automotive plastics

As part of the THINKTANK Industrial Resource Strategies, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have been working with Audi for a good six months on the pilot project “Chemical Recycling of plastics from automotive manufacturing.” Now that the project has been completed, it is clear that the Chemical Recycling of mixed plastic waste is both technically feasible and environmentally and financially promising. The plastic waste from automotive manufacturing can be processed into pyrolysis oil and could replace petroleum as a raw material for the production of high-quality plastic components in Audi models. The material cycles closed in this way save valuable resources, energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As such, Chemical Recycling represents a viable alternative to energy recovery and complements mechanical processing. In this way, Audi could use fossil resources for longer and thus scale back the procurement of additional fossil resources accordingly. Together with partners from the chemical industry and KIT, Audi now plans to take the next step and research the industrialization of this cycle.
Audi and THINKTANK at KIT are working on recycling method for automotive plastics
Company
11/23/2020

Audi and KIT are working on recycling method for automotive plastics

A large number of components in automobiles are made from plastics. They have to meet exacting safety, heat resistance and quality requirements. That is why, so far, only petroleum-based materials have been suitable for manufacturing plastic components in automobiles that are subjected to particularly intensive wear. Such materials are not recyclable in most cases. Whereas plastics of the same type can often be mechanically recycled, recycling of mixed plastic waste poses a major challenge. Audi and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) are therefore launching a pilot project for chemical recycling as part of the “Industrial Resource Strategies” THINKTANK in order to feed such mixed plastic fractions back into a resource-conserving circular system.